School District Declares “Gorilla” War on Employee Speech

Teachers’ aide Jane Wood Allen “has been relieved from duty and is no longer an employee of Forsyth County Schools,” the Georgia district announced on October 3. “Racism and discrimination are not tolerated in our school district.”

The district’s announcement omits specifics (“[a]s this is a personnel matter, the district will provide not further comment”), leaving the casual observer to assume that she must have tried to force a Muslim or Jewish student to eat pork, or perhaps to segregate student water fountains or district buses by race.

As a libertarian, I’m generally indisposed to defend either government education (I favor complete separation of school and state) or government employees (I favor complete separation of everything else and state as well, which would leave nothing for them to do!).

But the government shouldn’t be allowed to punish people for what they say. There’s a word for that. That word is “censorship.”

The content of Allen’s personal, non-work Facebook profile was and is, quite simply, none of the school district’s business. Firing her is essentially fining her, in the amount of all future wages and retirement benefits she would otherwise have earned, for the “crime” of having opinions the district’s officials disagreed with, and for expressing those opinions on her own time and using her own resources.

In arguing this point with some who disagree, I’ve been asked if I would want a racist teaching my kids. Well, no, I wouldn’t … but that doesn’t mean I get to demand that the government screen job applicants to make sure those applicants agree with me 100%, right down the line, on any and every issue and fire those who don’t.

The government shouldn’t get to fire someone because they find out that her or she is gay or trans rather than heterosexual and cis-gendered.

The government shouldn’t get to fire someone because they find out he or she is an Episcopalian rather than a Baptist.

The government shouldn’t get to fire someone because they find out he or she belongs to a political party other than the one in power.

And the government shouldn’t get to fire Jane Wood Allen for calling the First Lady a “gorilla.”

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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I disagree. It may be her private facebook page, but here’s the problem. if you list your employer then you could be seen as representing that employer. I happily reported a woman for her transphobic comments on a news article to her employer for such a reason. She got fired. Deservingly so.

I don’t support racism — in fact, one of my earliest political actions was counter-protesting the klan.

What I support is the government not regulating speech and engaging in censorship.

I’m all for private employers firing haters. I won’t patronize private firms that I know to be invested in hate.

But THE GOVERNMENT firing someone for non-work speech is evil and fascist. If the person you reported had been a government employee, firing her for being trans-phobic would have been exactly as wrong as firing her for being trans.

Kylie

I disagree.

I would have been doing the right thing to ensure a safe working environment.

You would have supported racism and transphobia which are the wrong things to support.

But of course, you’re brainwashed to believe it’s fine to be a bigot despite what society says

You didn’t come here to discuss with any evidence. You came here to accuse and play SJW, evident by your lack of information about this site and Mr. Knapp, and your unwillingness to lift a finger to find out.

CountryBoy

Kylie,

What if I don’t agree with what you say, and I’m on the committee to filter out such things?

Will you want people censoring your speech then?

Nothing was said of a “hostile” environment or other complaints – this was simply her own opinion outside of the school.

You were allowed to post your rants on a forum that could easily have removed them. They chose not to do so, so we’d have the benefit of reading your opinions.

As usual, you responded with personal attacks and name-calling, the hallmark of the “tolerant” group, while having the prescience to somehow “know” that “You would have supported racism and transphobia which are the wrong things to support”. Can you please tell me how you know that, as my crystal ball seems to have lost its connection to the netherworld.

But society has said they want the government to NOT censor speech, which is why we have the 1st Amendment to the Constitution.

So your very entertaining posts here and elsewhere can continue.

Thank you!

Kylie

‘as usual’ ? This is my first time commenting here. But I can see silencing is in full effect. Good to know

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